Setting up my own gaming server

[stymie222]

Is there any information resource or publication that you could recommend for setting up a gaming server? I play Combat fight simulations and would like to host several games.
I have built several PC's with the help of this forum and have the hardware knowledge but have never set up a server and the necessary software interface.
I would like the ability to host a single game to start up, with the ability of other players to join through the internet and also connect through a LAN to access and control all the administrative duties.
Thanks

[IntegraGSR]

I take it you already have a nice large pipe to this potential server?

If so, a server isn't too much different than a standard desktop, in the strict sense. Are you planning on getting a rack unit, or a standard ATX rig?

Basic game servers have:
As much RAM as possible
Fast hard drives (don't need a lot of space if you are only hosting game servers, consider SCSI?)
Dual core or better, doesn't matter which manufacturer as long as the frequency is high

Everything else is the same as a desktop. You don't need a sound card, and you only need a bare minimum video card. I do recommend getting a PCI Ethernet card just to offload networking duties from the processor.

Right now my game server I use at my LAN Parties has the following specs (put together from spare parts)

Athlon 64 3000+
1GB of RAM
nVidia 5900 FX AGP
60GB hard drive

[stymie222]

Thanks for your reply. I do need more instructions as to the workings of the server rather than the hardware set up. After I set up the hardware-

How do I apply for the IP address
Is the game CD or DVD left in the Server drive
How do I interact as an administrator and where is that ability found
How do I handle crashes
Do I need permission or a license from the game's owners

These and many other questions I need the sources for.

[IntegraGSR]

If you are using a router, which you probably are, it will set your IP automatically via DHCP. For a server, this is bad. You want to go into your connection settings, properties, TCP/IP and manually set the IP in there, i.e. 192.168.1.2. That way your LAN IP never changes so you are never guessing if someone takes the server IP in the case of a crash or restart.

Most games have dedicated server programs for their games, such as the entire Quake, Unreal, Half-Life (and derivatives) and Battlefield series. You download them over the internet, or they come with a standard installation. No CDs or DVDs should have to be in the drive to run the server program.

Most dedicated servers have something called RCON, or remote control. You setup a password in the server program and you have total command-line control via your console in the game. For more info on this, you'll have to look up how each game works via a search on the web.

Firstly you should get your rig up as stable as possible. Get everything together and run Prime or Orthos for a long time, making sure it's stable under the worst conditions. Once that has passed, run a game server and see if you can add bots to it. If you can, fill up the server as much as possible to simulate an actual game played by real people. If that doesn't crash, there's a low probability it'll happen in an actual game. However the best way to deal with crashes IMO is to setup a VNC server on the server computer and if the game does crash, just open up a VNC client on your computer, connect, and relaunch the program. There are also batch programs that keep a constant watch on your processes and the moment the game process stops, it automatically relaunches it.

You generally don't need licenses to run servers, but I'd read the documentation for each one just in case.